Our Story: Where Our Name Came From

One of the most common questions Hi Marley employees receive is, “Where did the name come from?”

Before settling on a B2B technology, the founders considered having more of a consumer-focused brand, where customers could ask any insurance-related question, such as: What is my premium? When is my policy coming up for renewal? What’s my deductible? What coverage do I have? The idea was to have an “Alexa” or “Siri” for the insurance industry. They started with the name Mia, which stood for My Insurance Assistant.

However, the team quickly realized Mia is a common name; it continues to land in the top ten most popular girl baby names in the US year after year. John Miller discovered that name was so popular it was already in use by an insurance company in England. “I called up Mike and Mitesh the moment I saw the website, and said, ‘there’s already a Mia insurance’,” said John Miller. They had to come up with a new name.

One afternoon, Mike arrived at John’s house with Post-it notes and markers. John hung up a big piece of paper to use as a whiteboard, and they spent the afternoon kicking around ideas.

“Mike had so many papers, like a lot of research, and we were getting nowhere after three hours,” said John Miller. “He had this notebook with 500 song titles written on it.”

At the time, Mike and John’s best friend was sick in the hospital, and they spent a lot of time going back and forth together to New York. “Three Little Birds” was an important song to them and a source of comfort.

“We were standing there, not knowing what to do. I looked down at my desk, and on a notebook – right in the middle was the song ‘Three Little Birds’,” said John Miller. “We both looked down, I put my finger on the song title, and I yelled ‘Bob!’ and Mike said, ‘Marley’. And it clicked. Marley should be the name.”

“Marley was a great choice,” said Mitesh Suchak. “It’s perfect. It’s unique. It’s gender neutral.”

Prior to discussing the company name, the founders had already started with a mantra, “simple, lovable protection.” “Our mantra was also a source of inspiration,” said Mike Greene. “Once we landed on Marley, I immediately visualized the dog Marley from Marley and Me—a yellow labrador retriever who is a source of love protection—fitting perfectly with our mantra.”

“We ended up stumbling upon a phenomenal name for the company,” John Miller added. “And I will say I was 100% wrong on Bob.”

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